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Learning Sustainability
Volume 1 Issue 1 August 23, 2001
Contents
Welcome
The Learning Sustainability Forum
The Green Gold 2001 Exposition
Our Speakers
Registration Announcement
Greetings and welcome to the Learning Sustainability newsletter! This will be our publication for both our regional forum, which will be held October 10-13, 2001 in Buffalo New York, and for our long range Learning Sustainability Campaign.
You are subscribed to this newsletter because you have signed up to the Learning Sustainability Forum's Website list serve. Please encourage others to visit our website and sign up to our list serve by going to: www.sustain.buffalo.edu, and following the link to "Join our Mailing List"
We are proud to say that our website has recently been updated and we encourage you to visit it frequently so that you may see how we are growing and changing.
Many of the thinkers that work on sustainability issues say that we are living in an unsustainable world. They say that our use of resources far outweighs our planets ability to provide a quality of life that will be productive and good in the future.
Sustainability is a very big issue and it infuses just about every part of our lives. This means that we all have a context in which to understand and talk about sustainability. Our forum is designed to launch a wide-ranging conversation about issues of sustainability. It is the beginning of the Learning Sustainability Campaign that will not only help our immediate region to evolve understanding and leadership around these issues, but will also speak to the global community.
We invite you to participate in the Learning Sustainability Forum, and to help us build the Learning Sustainability Campaign. We invite your comments, suggestions, and thoughts. This first newsletter will serve as an introduction of us to you. We hope that you will also take the opportunity to introduce yourselves to us so that we can create a true dialogue about sustainability issues and solutions. These discussions will help to characterize and shape our future; locally, regionally and on a global scale. We invite you to become a part of our conversation.
Jay Burney
Learning Sustainability Director
The Learning Sustainability Forum
The October event is designed to bring together globally recognized individuals and resources and local and regional citizens, community leaders, educators, government policy makers, and business leaders. One of our prime objectives is to promote leadership and action around issues of sustainability.
Initially we are addressing three broad categories of sustainability that we are referring to as the "Pillars" of our conversation. These are: Environment, Society, and Economics. These pillars are linked to each other, and to the context of continued quality living on this earth.
-It is clear that the environment is changing, because nature is about nothing if not change. How we view these changes, and how we respond to the potential consequences of these changes are a major part of our focus.
Society is a critical component of sustainable thinking.. How our society develops and responds to environmental and economic issues will have lasting global impacts. Ours is a consumer society and we are exporting this society around the globe. Can we maintain cultural diversity? Is a consumer society good or evil? Can we as individuals and as a collective global society adapt to the changes that are occurring on our planet?
Economics and economic development are engines that run much of our environmental and social decision-making. We will explore the connections and seek collaborative ways to both identify and preserve the bottom line, and find ways to identify and insure a positive quality of life for generations to come.
It is our intention to build working links between community, government, business, and academic resources in order to build opportunities leading to sustainable practice and development. This will include encouraging leadership opportunites and project development.
To learn more about our objectives and goals, please go to our website: www.sustain.buffalo.edu.
Green Gold 2001 Exposition
Buffalo's Green Gold Development Corporation is proud to announce its first business Exposition to be held at the Buffalo Convention Center on October 11-12, 2001. Green Gold's 2001 Exposition is the 21st century equivalent of the Pan-American Exposition of 1901. It will present environmental technology as a defining theme for the region's future. The Exposition will showcase a tangible framework for a sustainable society and launch new initiatives and innovation, just as the Pan-American Exposition of 1901 did.
Green Gold is a non-profit organization created in 1998 as an initiative of Buffalo Common Council President James Pitts, to assist and attract businesses that solve environmental problems with their products or services to the Buffalo area.
The Exposition will showcase WNY's leading environmental technology firms along with industry leaders that have implemented sustainable business practices and continue to enhance corporate accountability in terms of environmental and social responsibility. National and local non-profit organizations will also exhibit to demonstrate the wealth of educational resources on sustainability.
According to Exposition Director, Randi Mail, "Green Gold's Expo is an incredible opportunity for WNY to realize one of its greatest assets - an industry sector focused on environmentally responsive technology. Buffalo is very unique to have Green Gold put forth a progressive economic development strategy that values our communities and our environment."
Goals of the expo include:
1. Promote and strengthen the environmental business cluster in the WNY region.
2. Showcase thriving corporate models of environmental stewardship & sustainability policy.
3. Demonstrate to youth and the general public that there is an environmental job market.
4. Raise awareness of the "Next Industrial Revolution" where businesses redefine themselves in terms of ecological compatibility.
Paul Hawken, business leader, environmentalist, and author of the best-selling books Growing a Business, The Next Economy, Ecology of Commerce and Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution will deliver the luncheon address on Friday, October 12th. Known as one of the leading architects and proponents of corporate reform with respect to ecological practices, Mr. Hawken has a long list of accomplishments. He has served on the board of many environmental organizations, helped found The Natural Step in the United States and internationally, and advises major companies and governments in sustainability.
A Sustainable Business Challenge will be featured at the Expo. The Challenge will encourage local companies to improve the way they do business, by adopting and putting into practice the idea of a "triple bottom-line". This concept reflects a business strategy that includes environmental protection and social equity.
Green Gold's 2001 Exposition will be held in conjunction with the Learning Sustainability Forum presented by the Environment & Society Institute at UB and Buffalo's Green Gold Development Corporation.
To further equip business, community and educational leaders with the tools to practice sustainability, the Rocky Mountain Institute will deliver a seminar on Natural Capitalism for business leaders. RMI is an entrepreneurial, nonprofit organization that fosters the efficient and restorative use of resources to create a more secure, prosperous, and life-sustaining world. Natural Capitalism is a new and rapidly spreading business model that harnesses environmental performance as an engine of competitive advantage.
The event will celebrate the anniversary of the Pan-American Exposition of 1901 as Green Gold provides a glimpse of what technology of the 21st century will bring.
Our Speakers
Jane Goodall is one of the world's most famous people. From her 40 years of research on chimpanzee behavior and social relations to her present day commitment to social and environmental causes, Dr. Goodall's contributions to humanity are remarkable. Her extraordinary life, as a scientist and conservationist, has been highlighted with her close association with famed paleontologist Dr. Louis Leakey and scientific breakthroughs in Tanzania's Gombe preserve.
Her scientific articles have appeared in many issues of National Geographic. She has written scores of papers for internationally known scientific journals. Dr. Goodall has also written several "adult" books, including In The Shadow of Man and Reason for Hope, along with five "children" books about Chimpanzees. She pleads to thousands of people throughout the world on behalf of her career-long sponsor, the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation.
Dr. Goodall has expanded her global outreach through the Jane Goodall Institute http://gsn.org/gsn/jgi.home.html based in Silverspring, MD. She now teaches and encourages young people to appreciate the conversation of chimpanzees and all creatures great and small. She lectures, writes, teaches and continues her mission in many inventive ways, including the Chimpanzee Guardian Project and, more recently, the Roots & Shoots youth program which currently includes tens of thousands of children in over 1,500 US chapters.
Jane Goodall will be the speaker at the University at Buffalo's Distinguished Speaker Series event at UB's Alumni Arena on Wednesday evening October 10. She will also open our Learning Sustainability Forum on Thursday morning at the Buffalo Convention Center.
Paul Hawken is a business leader, environmentalist, and author. He is known as one of the leading architects and proponents of corporate reform with respect to ecological practices. His writings and work have caused CEOs to transform their internal corporate culture and business philosophy towards environmental restoration. He has founded several companies, served on the board of many environmental organizations and has written such best-selling books as The Ecology of Commerce, Growing a Business and his latest book is Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution. He helped found The Natural Step in the United States and internationally, and advises many major companies on sustainability issues. For more information:
Natural Capital: http://www.naturalcapitalism.org/
Paul Hawken will be the guest speaker at the Green Gold Exposition luncheon on Friday October 12.
David Suzuki Chair of the David Suzuki Foundation is an award-winning scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster.
David has received consistently high acclaim for his thirty years of award-winning work in broadcasting, explaining the complexities of science in a compelling, easily understood way. He is well known to millions as the host of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's popular science television series, The Nature of Things.
His eight part series, A Planet for the Taking won an award from the United Nations. His eight-part PBS series The Secret of Life was praised internationally, as was his five-part series The Brain for the Discovery Channel. For CBC Radio he founded the long running radio series, Quirks and Quarks and has presented two influential documentary series on the environment, From Naked Ape to Superspecies and It's a Matter of Survival.
The author of more than 30 books, David Suzuki is recognized as a world leader in sustainable ecology. He lives with his wife, Dr. Tara Cullis, and two children in Vancouver.
David Suzuki will be our dinner speaker on Thursday October 12 at the Buffalo Convention Center
Sylvia Earle
-is a globally recognized marine biologist. She is also the former chief scientist of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association. She is currently director of Deep Ocean Engineering, a company she founded in 1981, which builds deep ocean submersibles. Earle is also president of Deep Ocean Exploration and Research; chair of the Caribbean Marine Research Center, a director of the Center for Marine Conservation, the Explorers Club, the World Resources Institute, and the Lindbergh Foundation, and a member of the Council of the World Wide Fund for Nature and the World Wildlife fund.
Along with Jane Goodall, Sylvia Earle was recently named as a Hero of the Planet.
She is author of the book "Sea Change", which Jane Goodall called "A landmark book of tremendous importance...It conveys an urgent call to action, an appeal to every one of us who cares about the ocean world on which we are all, ultimately, dependent. After reading this book-and read it you must- you will never be quite the same."
Sylvia Earle has been compared to both Jacques Cousteau and Rachael Carson
Sheldon Kamieniecki
-Received his Ph.D. in political science from the State University of New York at Buffalo and has taught at the University of Southern California since 1981. He chaired the Department of Political Science at USC for the last six years, and he was the founding Director of the Environmental Studies Program for eight years. He has also published numerous journal articles and book chapters on state, federal, and international environmental policy questions. Last year he co-edited a symposium on, The Many Faces of Canadian Environmental Policy: Is Canada Moving Toward a Sustainable Society? for the Policy Studies Journal. This year he is a Visiting Professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
In addition to being one of the country's leading researchers in the area of environmental policy, Professor Kamieniecki has been a consultant for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In 1981 he advised the EPA on the development of the first priority list of Superfund sites. In 1985 and 1986, working closely with Professor Steven Cohen at Columbia University, he helped formulate the implementation plan for the underground storage tank provisions of the 1984 Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments.
Faye Duchin
-is a world-class economist. As former director of the Institute for Economic Analysis at New York University, Duchin succeeded Nobel Laureate Wassily Leontief and collaborated with Leontief and other researchers to integrate their economic framework with an equally detailed environmental analysis to explore the interaction between the world economy and the global ecosystem
Under her current direction, the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is attracting an intensely creative student body that promises to change the world by shaping the future.
She is one of a handful of economists renowned for their work in ecological economics. She is preparing to publish her fourth book, Structural Economics: Measuring Change in Technology, Lifestyles and the Environment.
Duchin's goal is to provide a broad intellectual framework for the scientific and humanistic relationships inscribed in her favorite phrases, the human-computer interface and the global and social contexts of technological development.
Dianne Dillonridgley represents the World Y.W.C.A. (World Young Women's Christian Association, Geneva, Switzerland) at U.N. headquarters in New York. She is a noted international speaker on Sustainable Development, Population, Gender, Environmental Justice and Human Rights issues. In 1993, she was the first director of the Women, Cancer and the Environment Campaign.
In the last ten years Ms. Dillonridgley has served on numerous U.S. delegations at U.N. global meetings and other international conferences. She was commissioned by the White House to serve as an advisor and member of the U.S. Delegation to the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro 1992. After the Earth Summit she was appointed national co-chair of the Citizen's Network for Sustainable Development in the U.S.
In 1994 President Clinton appointed her to the President's Council on Sustainable Development where she served as co-chair of the Council's International Task Force with then Commerce Secretary Daley and co-chaired the Population and Consumption Task Force with former Undersecretary of State Tim Wirth. From 1994 through 1997, Ms. Dillonridgley served as president of Zero Population Growth (ZPG), the nation's largest grassroots organization concerned with rapid population growth and the environment. She served as the Acting Executive Director of the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) during 1998 and 1999.
This is our initial newsletter and we are testing the list serve with this, among other things. Upcoming issues will address registration questions, etc.
For more information on all of our speakers go to our website: www.sustain.buffalo.edu
REGISTRATION Announcement
-Registration will begin on September 1
-The Wednesday Evening Distinguished Speaker Series with Jane Goodall will be a separate registration, and will run from $14-$36 US Funds
-Full Registration for Thursday and Friday including the Suzuki dinner and the Hawken luncheon
will be under $100 US Funds.
-Separate daily registration for Thursday, Friday, and/or Saturday, will be available
-All Saturday events are free.
-Special discounts will be available for those that register prior to October 1.
-High School and College Students with ID's will be admitted at no charge (exclusive of dinner and luncheon)
-Community Scholarships will be available.
-More to come on Registration in our next newsletter.
Comments, Opinons, Suggestions, regarding the Learning Sustainability Newsletter:
lscampaign@aol.com
Jay Burney
Conference Director: Lscampaign@aol.com
Volume 1 Issue 2 September 15, 2001
-ONLINE REGISTRATION AVAILABLE NOW-
It's finally here! You can now register online for the Learning Sustainability Conference! Please go to our website: www.sustain.buffalo.edu and follow the links to Registration. Please feel free to print out the form and mail it or go online and use it there. Share it with a friend, or with several friends and please remember to register early.
Please note that there are registration fees affiliated with the Learning Sustainability Forum. With the exception of the Distinguished Speaker Series with Jane Goodall on Wednesday October 10, which is run by the University and has separate fees (accessible on our registration form), the Learning Sustainability fee's are in place to cover the costs of food -exclusively. Food catered by the Buffalo Convention Center includes breakfast style buffet on Thursday and Friday, luncheons on Thursday and Friday including Friday's Luncheon with Paul Hawken, and a dinner banquet on Thursday evening with David Suzuki.
The modest registration fees are to cover these costs. We are charging daily fees rather than individual meal fee's to make it administratively easier at our end. We also need as closely as possible to verify the number of meals in advance.
HOWEVER, all events including the banquet addresses are free and open , -if you don't want to eat.
-It is important to register in advance because space is somewhat limited for some of the programs.
-We have separate registration categories for High School and College Students (events free-no food) -and we have Community Scholarships for those that request them. (events free-no food).
-All Green Gold Exposition rooms are free and open to the public without advance registration.
-Everyone must register and we encourage you to register in advance. There will be registration at the door, with some restrictions on meal availability.
We would appreciate if you would register as soon as possible, and if you would consider purchasing meals with us. The meals will be delicious and will promote sustainable practices. On Thursday you will get a breakfast buffet, a multi-cultural buffet for lunch, and a delicious dinner for a total of $40 if your register before October 1, or $50 if you register after October 1. On Friday you get a delicious breakfast buffet, and a luncheon meal for a $35/$45. If you register to eat for both days, the prices are $70/$80, a savings of $5 and $15 respectively. It pays to register for both days.
Thanks and go right now to: www.sustain.buffalo.edu
And register. Please spread the word.
-Twelve Eight Path Band to perform at Learning Sustainability Forum-
We are very pleased to announce that after the conclusion of the David Suzuki Banquet on Thursday October 11, Buffalo's own Twelve Eight Path Band will perform for participants at the Convention Center. This outstanding musical experience is completely un-plugged and mobile, ethnically diverse, spiritually in-tune, politically focused, extremely inclusive and 100% sustainable. The band, which is comprised of horns and percussion exclusively, might best be described as Latin-Funk-New Orleans-Samba-Carnival Jazz. With constantly evolving membership and healthy amounts of improvisation, the Path is never the same twice. Not even once, come to think of it. Don't miss it!
This is one of Buffalo's most significant musical experiences!
Tickets are included with paid registration, or $5.00 at the door.
-Our Link to the Pan American Exposition Celebration-
On Sunday September 2 an article appeared in the Buffalo News that was somewhat critical of the areas Pan American Exposition Centennial Celebration, and it mentioned the Learning Sustainability Forum as an example of something that the writer "didn't get" how it linked to the Celebration. For the original Buffalo News story go to: http://www.buffalonews.com/lifestyles/columns/othercolumns.asp
Learning Sustainability Director Jay Burney sent the Buffalo News the following letter in response, and it has not been published:
vMonday, September 3, 2001
Dear Buffalo News
It is always a pleasure to read Lauri Githens in the Sunday News. This past Sunday she wrote an excellent column on the Pan American 2001 celebration and was gracious enough to mention "Learning Sustainability, Achieving Environmental, Social, and Economic Well-being." This four-day event cosponsored by UB, Erie County, and Buffalo's Green Gold Development Corporation will be held both at UB and at the downtown convention Center October 10-13. We are quite proud to be recognized by the Pan American 2001 centennial celebration. However, Ms. Githens says she does not "get" our event. Let me try to bring some "light" to the subject.
The Learning Sustainability Forum is designed to begin a discussion in our community that will help to characterize our future. Sustainability is a broad subject that affects everyone's lives, and inclusive discussion helps point our society toward a more sustainable future. Many people that think about the subject come to the conclusion that we are not living in a sustainable world, and that we should be more concerned about the quality of life in the coming years. We are exploring the future of our region by focusing on sustainable environmental, social, and economic issues. A hundred years ago, leaders in our community were focusing on and grappling with the same issues. What is our future, and how do we insure that our community will remain viable for the next 100 years and beyond? The Pan American Exposition and the Learning Sustainability Forum were both born with those central questions. We feel that this is an important way to celebrate some positive aspects of the Pan American Exposition.
Globally recognized contemporary thinkers including Jane Goodall, David Suzuki, Paul Hawken, and Sylvia Earle, are coming to this event in order to help us contextualize our regions needs and opportunities with a wider perspective. The Pan American Exposition also brought in important thinkers in the same context.
Concurrent with the Learning Sustainability Forum, and at the Convention Center, is the Green Gold Business Exposition/2001, which will feature exhibits by local, regional, and national businesses that are focusing on environmental and social solutions. These cutting edge and future oriented businesses will be celebrated in a manner similar to how the Pan American celebrated the future of economy and business in 1901.
This is a very big event for Buffalo. Not only are we attracting positive attention from around the globe, but we are also bringing together members of the academic, business, environmental, and social community in order to discuss and the very real future that we face together. This is an important step for any community.
You may find more about our event at: www.buffalo.sustain.edu.
This event registration is open to the public and we welcome all of the community to participate by coming together to meet and initiate what we hope will be a long term "conversation" that will help us chart a sustainable future course.
Jay Burney
Learning Sustainability Director
716-825-1980
-Regional Events and Links to know about-
-Buffalo Tree Survey Project
September 24, 2001
Delaware Park Casino 6:00 -10:00 pm
Website: www.urp.ene.com
The Buffalo Tree Inventory Project Team introduces the urban tree survey of the City of Buffalo. Join Urban Forest Professionals in discussing environmental functions and economic values of trees, stewardship opportunities, urban forest and environmental computer software, urban habitat, energy savings and liability and health issues associated with urban environments.
For more information
Paul Fuhrman, Ecology and Environment -716.684.8060
-Great Niagara Gorge Festival
Saturday , September 29, 2001, 12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Where: Schoelkopf Museum to Devil's Hole State Park, Niagara Falls, New York
Recently the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation has begun working to return the State Reservation to Fredrick Law Olmsted's original plan of natural scenery and distinctive character. They have announced a pilot program that will close two lanes of the Robert Moses Parkway for a period of two years to test traffic impacts and gauge public support for expanding hiking and cycling opportunities. The celebrate the kick-off of the pilot program, there will be a day of celebration, including a bicycling contest for children, re-enactment play performed by the Western Door Playhouse, Outer Circle Orchestra, Children's storytelling, Heritage walk from the Museum to Devil's Hole with a Heroes and Villain Parade. There will also be a certified 5K run starting at 11:00 a.m. For additional information, go to http://www.niagaraheritage.org/greatniagaragorge.htm Volunteers needed.
-Media Democracy Project
http://www.mediademocracyday.org
This Toronto based group is promoting a new vision for mass media that includes empowerment of all members of society.
Planning includes a Media Democracy Day in Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary on October 19.
-GREEN DESIGN 2001: SOLAR ENERGY IN BUILDINGS
Thursday, November 8, 2001
8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Buffalo Convention Center
Preceded by a talk and forum with Steven Strong,
Wednesday, November 7, 5:30- 7:00 p.m.,
301 Crosby Hall, UB South Campus, UB School of Architecture
COST AND REGISTRATION FOR GREEN DESIGN 2001
Registration for the conference will begin in late September when the
conference brochure is mailed out. We are trying to keep the registration
fee modest, in the $30 to $50 range, with a discount for students and low
income. Lunch will be included.
GREEN DESIGN 2001 CONFERENCE SPONSORS (as of August 22, list in formation)
* AIA Buffalo/WNY
* Buffalo Environmental Management Commission
* Erie County Environmental Management Council
* Green Gold Development Corporation
* Legislator Barry Weinstein 15th District Office
* NYSERDA
* ReBuild America - Buffalo Niagara Partnership
* UB Department of Architecture
* UB Green Office, SUNY Buffalo
* WNY Sustainable Energy Association
CONFERENCE OBJECTIVES
* Continue process of professional green design training for WNY
architects, designers, engineers, developers, and building professionals
* Continue to encourage local government and community support for
green design, especially for major civic public works projects including
Buffalo Schools
* Highlight solar energy as an appropriate option for green design in
a cold climate city such as Buffalo (and highlight new developments in solar
such as building integrated photovoltaics or BiPV)
* Promote LEED training of design professionals
* Build on the solar initiatives of the 2001 Pan Am Commemoration
GREEN DESIGN 2001 CONFERENCE SPEAKERS
DONALD AITKEN -- Principal, Donald Aitken Associates, Berkeley, CA; Senior
Consulting Scientist, Union of Concerned Scientists; Affiliate Faculty
Member, Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. Previously research
physicist at Stanford University; Executive Director of the Western Regional
Solar Energy Center for U.S. Department of Energy. Designed pioneering
energy efficient and solar buildings. Internationally renown lecturer on
daylighting, energy policy, and on implications of global climate change for
the building community. Twice national chairman of the American Solar Energy
Society.
DENNIS ANDREJKO - Associate Professor of Architecture, SUNY Buffalo; author
of Passive Solar Architecture: Logic and Beauty; areas of teaching and
research expertise include energy-conscious architecture, cold regions
design, passive solar and sustainable design. AIA chapter Executive Board
member. Exhibition and publication of design work in Germany, Japan, Canada,
and the U.S. Professional practice. M.Arch. A.S., Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, B.Arch. (cum laude), Arizona State University.
HILLARY BROWN - Director, New Civic Works, New York, NY. Integrating High
Performance Building Practices into public works programs and community
development sector. Former Assistant Commissioner of Design and Construction
(Director of the Office of Sustainable Design), City of New York. Managing
editor and contributing author of NYC's High Performance Building
Guidelines, nationally and internationally recognized for its comprehensive
approach to green building practices. Board member, New York Chapter U.S.
Green Building Council. Recipient of NY Chapter of AIA's 2000 "Public
Architect Award."
STEVEN STRONG - President, Solar Design Associates, Harvard, MA. Expert in
integration of renewable energy systems - especially solar electricity
including BiPV - with environmentally responsive building design. Designed
world's first PV powered neighborhood in central Massachusetts. Advisor to
project to power the 1996 Olympics Natatorium Complex in Atlanta with the
world's largest roof-top PV system. In the spring of 1999, TIME magazine
named him an environmental "Hero of the Planet."
TENTATIVE CONFERENCE AGENDA
8:00 - 8:30 Registration
8:30 - 8:40 Welcome and Introduction -- Walter Simpson
8:40 - 9:10 "The Challenge of Global Climate Change to the Building
Community," Don Aitken (includes ten minutes of Q&A)
9:10 - 9:40 "LEEDing the Way to Green Design," Hillary Brown. The
role of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green
building rating system and video on 1st LEED Platinum building, the
Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Merrill Environmental Center, Annapolis, MD
9:40 - 9:50 Update on Local Green Design Initiatives
9:50 - 10:00 Government Support for Green Design -- DOE programs, NYSERDA,
NYS Green Building Tax Credit
10:00 - 10:15 COFFEE BREAK
Introductory Presentations by Speakers (25 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A)
10:15 - 10:50 "Passive Solar Design for Residential Buildings," Dennis
Andrejko
10:50 - 11:25 "Daylighting and Solar Energy in Commercial Buildings," Don
Aitken
11:25 - 12:00 "Cutting-Edge Solar: Building Integrated Photovoltaics,"
Steven Strong
12:00 - 12:45 LUNCH
12:45 - 4:30 Concurrent Workshops on passive solar, daylighting, and
building- integrated photovoltaics -- by Andrejko, Aitken and Strong, plus
coffee break. (Each workshop offered twice)
4:30 - 5:30 "Green Design Opportunities for the Buffalo Schools" (proposed)
-- Closing Plenary, Hillary Brown (moderator), panel (in formation)
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?!
Architects, designers, engineers, developers, representatives of major WNY
construction projects, community leaders, elected representatives and
government officials associated with new construction and major projects,
students and faculty in appropriate disciplines, members of the wider
community.
AIA Learning Units will be available.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
See http://wings.buffalo.edu/ubgreen or
contact Erin Cala at the UB Green Office, ecala@facilities.buffalo.edu
ecala@facilities.buffalo.edu , (716) 829-3535. Contact us to
provide address to receive conference brochure.
Final Note:
-Learning Sustainability-
Please ask others to sign on to our newsletter by going to our website: sustain.buffalo.edu
And following the links to "join our mailing list"
Volume 1 Issue 3 October 5, 2001
Learning Sustainability Forum and Green Gold Exposition/2001 Just a Few Days Away!
If you haven’t yet registered please do by going to:
www.sustain.buffalo.edu
A Challenge to Global Tension
On September 11 change was thrust upon us. Our economy was dealt a blow. Will we be able, at home and throughout the world, to rebound and build a sustainable economic system? Our society is changing. Will we and the rest of the world be able to achieve sustainable social well being? We are embarking on a war. War impacts our environment. Will the world's ecologic systems and natural resources - already stressed as they are -- be able to be sustained and continue to provide a healthy base in support of our social, economic, and governmental systems?
Our future changed and became more uncertain and unpredictable after September 11th. That, however, makes it all the more important for us to understand -- globally, regionally, and locally -- how we can work our way toward a sustainable future. That is what the Learning Sustainability Forum is all about.
-Paul Reitan, Professor Emeritus,
University at Buffalo
-We Wish to Thank the Following for Funding Contributions to the Learning Sustainability Forum-
The University at Buffalo, the Environment and Society Institute; the College of Arts and Sciences; The Office of Special Events; the Institute for Local Governance and Regional Growth; The Pan American Exposition Celebration
Buffalo’s GreenGold Development Corporation; Erie County; HSBC Bank; M&T Bank; NYSERDA; The Office of The Attorney General of New York State; The New York Power Authority; Great Lakes United; the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo
and
The Government of Canada
-Learning Sustainability Newsletter-
Table of Contents
-Learning Sustainability Forum News
-David Suzuki to Talk, Sign Books -page 3-
-Lester Milbrath to Receive ESI LifeTime Achievement Award -page 4-
-Green Gold Business Exposition News
-Lexington Real Food Coop to Receive Green Gold Business Award -page 6-
-Opinion
-Learning Sustainability -page 7-
-Learning Sustainability Feature Speakers Roundup -page 9-
-Opinion
-Business is the Solution? -Paul Hawken and The Culture of Natural Capitalism -page 10-
-Important Links- page 11-
-What’s Next, -Now More Than Ever -page12-
Contact Us:
Editor: Jay Burney
www.sustain.buffalo.edu
lscampaign@aol.com
Learning Sustainability Forum News
David Suzuki to Give Dinner Talk, Sign Books
Dr. David Suzuki will deliver an address as a part of the evening dinner celebration at the Learning Sustainability Forum on Thursday night, October 11, beginning at 7:30pm. Advance registration is suggested. At the conclusion of Dr. Suzuki’s presentation he will appear at the Talking Leaves Exhibit at the Green Gold Exhibition at the Convention Center for a brief book signing ceremony.
Dr. Suzuki’s presentation is called: “The Challenge for an Ecological Millennium; The Real Bottom Line”. In it he will discuss biodiversity and how this affects our lives. David Suzuki is Chair of the David Suzuki Foundation and an award-winning scientist, author, environmentalist and broadcaster.
For more than 30 years, Dr. Suzuki has helped explain the complexities of science to the public in a compelling, easily understood way. He is well known to millions as the host of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's popular science television series, The Nature of Things.
An internationally respected geneticist, Dr. Suzuki has been a full Professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver since 1969. He is currently with the university’s Sustainable Development Research Institute.
Dr. Suzuki has received numerous awards for his work, including a UNESCO prize for science, a United Nations Environment Program medal and the Order of Canada. He has 15 honorary doctorates from universities in Canada, the US and Australia. For his work in support of Canada's First Nations people, David has received many tributes and has been honored with five names and formal adoption by two tribes.
Born in Vancouver, BC in 1936, Dr. Suzuki was held in a Japanese internment camp during WWII. After the war, he went to high school in London, Ontario. He graduated with Honors from Amherst College in 1958 and went on to earn his PhD in Zoology from the University of Chicago in 1961.
Dr. Suzuki founded the David Suzuki Foundation in 1990, after his radio series It's a Matter of Survival drew more than 17,000 letters from concerned listeners, eager to learn what they could do to reduce their impact on the environment.
The Foundation is an environmental non-profit organization registered in Canada and the United States. Through scientific research, public education and advocacy, the Foundation seeks to balance human needs with the natural systems that ultimately sustain all life.
Today, the Foundation employs 35 full-time staff, with additional scientists, economists and researchers hired on a contract basis. It does not accept government grants. Instead, funding comes from about 36,000 individual supporters around the world, as well as private foundations.
Currently, the Foundation is focusing its efforts on climate change and global warming, sustainable forestry and fisheries, and salmon aquaculture.
More News:
Lester Milbrath to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award From Environment and Society Institute
The Environment and Society Institute of the University at Buffalo will present a Lifetime Environmental Achievement Award to Lester W. Milbrath during the Learning Sustainability Forum.The presentation will occur at 1130 am on Thursday October 11.
Professor Milbrath was the Director of the Research Program in Environment and Society, and is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Sociology.
At the University at Buffalo he was Director of the Environmental Studies Center from 1976 to 1987, and Associate Provost for Social Science and Director of the Social Science Research Institute from 1969 to 1976.
His research in Political Science focused on lobbying, political participation, and political beliefs. He built on this foundation for his more recent research on the relationship between environment and society, which has focused on environmental attitudes, perceptions, beliefs, and values, as well as on the characteristics of a sustainable society. He also has written on citizen participation in environmental policy decisions; on conceptualizing and measuring quality of environment and quality of life; and on foresight and planning for a sustainable future.
He is author of The Washington Lobbyists, 1963; Political Participation, 1965 (2nd edition 1977); and The Politics of Environmental Policy, 1975. His 1984 book, Environmentalists: Vanguard for a New Society, reports on a study of the environmentally related beliefs and values of the public, and various elites in England, West Germany, and the United States. His capstone book, Envisioning a Sustainable Society: Learning Our Way Out, 1989, integrates a lifetime of learning and the predicament Western Civilization has created for itself by dominating and attempting to distance itself from planet Earth’s life systems, and sketches the fundamentals of a more sustainable society. A brief book, Learning to Think Environmentally: While There is Still Time, 1996, is written in conversational style to make it more accessible to laypersons. It sets forth the basic principles of environmental thinking.
Dr. Milbrath was elected the Founding Chair of HOLIS: The Society for a Sustainable Future, in 1992. In 1997 the section on Ecological and Transformational Politics of the American Political Science Association awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award in Scholarship, Teaching, and Advancement of the Field.
Text of ESI Award
Lifetime Environmental Achievement Award
presented to
Lester W. Milbrath, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Sociology
University at Buffalo, State University of New York
In recognition of the dedication of his professional career to the fields of
Sustainability of Future Society
Environmental Beliefs and Values
Environmental Public Policy
and as Director of the Environmental Studies Center 1976 - 1987
The Lester W. Milbrath Environment & Society Institute Fellowship
will be awarded annually to a Graduate Student
who has the potential to excel in
Interdisciplinary Environmental Study and Research
Awarded by the Environment & Society Institute
University at Buffalo, State University of New York
2001
_______________________
John E. Vena, Ph.D., Director
Green Gold Business Exposition News
Lexington Community Co-op to Receive Business Award
For immediate release
Wednesday, October 2, 2001
Contact: Randi Mail
Phone: 851.5779
Email: rmail@ch.ci.buffalo.ny.us
Learning Sustainability Forum October 10-13, 2001
www.sustain.buffalo.edu - Register Online NOW
Buffalo’s Green Gold Development Corporation is proud to announce that its first annual Sustainable Business Award, will go to the Lexington Real Foods Community Co-op to be presented at the Learning Sustainability Forum, October 10-13, 2001.
Since 1972, the Lexington Co-op has been community owned and operated, offering Buffalo residents a wide variety of organic groceries and natural food products. Lexington’s strong commitment to the community, the environment and Cooperative Principles is demonstrated by their own Food Philosophy and mission statement: Providing a natural foods grocery store in a friendly environment, education about nutrition, consumer issues and cooperative principles while nurturing the local economy and the environment.
Organic, locally grown and manufactured, nutritious, and minimally packaged foods are the Co-op’s priorities. Produce waste is composted for use by local farms. Money spent at the Co-op strengthens the local economy. Customers gain access to wholesome foods, a nurturing community and educational materials.
According to General Manager Tim Bartlett, the Lexington Co-op is a sustainable business because, “We help cultivate a sustainable economy by supporting local farmers, which minimizes environmental impact. Our commitment to sell organic and locally grown food provides farmers a reliable market and increases community access. Food grown organically avoids unnecessary effects on human health and the ecosystem as compared with food grown conventionally with chemicals.”
With this award, Green Gold hopes to create interest in sustainable business strategies and support for its economic development strategy focused on the environmental solutions sector. Companies that take Green Gold’s Sustainable Business Challenge will engage principles of Natural Capitalism and the emerging “triple bottom line”.
Green Gold is a non-profit organization created in 1998 as an initiative of Buffalo Common Council President James Pitts, to assist and attract businesses that solve environmental problems with their products or services to the Buffalo area.
For more information visit www.sustain.buffalo.edu and www.greengold.org/expo or call 716.851.4986
Opinion
Learning Sustainability
Sustainability is an interesting topic that transcends most parts of our lives. Because of that you don’t have to be an expert to think about, talk about, or take actions that promote sustainability. However that doesn’t mean that we can’t learn more about it because we can. Sustainability is so big, so broad, and so encompassing, addressing it requires critical thinking by all of us. And now, in this time of global stress and crisis, it is more important than ever to think about sustainability.
What is sustainability? Basically, sustainability is about the ability to continue to live productive and healthy lives while not reaching beyond the boundaries of our planet’s abilities to support us. Issues surrounding sustainability reach into economic development, ecology and environment, and social consequences. Sustainability involves discussions about our clean water, soil, and air, personal choices, and broad society inspired choices that we make regarding population, poverty and wealth, the distribution and consumption of foods, and rampant consumerism.
Many people that study sustainability have come to the conclusion that we do not live in a sustainable world. Sustainability experts strongly suggest that our disposable, consumer society, is not working well.
For instance, our environmental and economic choices have lead us down widening paths that do not easily link important things such as energy consumption with conservation, economic development with preservation of natural resources, or personal choice with moderation and thoughtfulness. We live in an excessive consumer society where accumulations of wealth and the products of wealth are rewarded with power, status, and privilege. These personal and collective actions, which are often focused by corporate influence, probably have lead us more rapidly toward the consequences of global climate change and the environmental, economic, and social changes that that may bring. The fact that we are exporting our consumer society to the rest of the world can only be viewed as a double-edged sword that cuts both ways. With privilege and power there always comes privation, poverty, and despair.
Last year Buffalo hosted the first Western New York Environmental Roundtable, and it featured the release of a White House sponsored report called: “ Potential Consequences of Global Climate Change in the Great Lakes”. Dr. Peter Sousounis, principal author of the report, told the roundtable audience in the downtown Statler Building, that because of global and regional environmental conditions that are affecting our climate, we can expect significant and unalterable changes in our area during the next 20-100 years. Among them he listed considerably lower lake levels, and warmer temperatures. He indicated that many species including most types of Pine trees would cease to exist here. Can you imagine the disappearance of the Buffalo Harbor if the lake drops 30 feet or more, which some scientists have predicted? Samuel Wilkerson would role over in his grave! When one of the roundtable participants asked Dr. Sousounis “What can be done” his most startling answer was “sell your kid’s skis and boats”, with the explanation that as well as lower lake levels, before our young reach adulthood, winters may disappear forever from Buffalo
Before we get into too much of a “the sky is falling mentality” lets take stock of our opportunities. First of all it is never too late to begin to think, and to act. Although there may be numerous unalterable consequences in the economic, environmental, and social worldscapes we must remember that nature is about nothing if not change. Change may be coming, but it is not to late to prepare aggressively for it.
The coming years will continue to bring significant changes to our planet, and to our region. Now is the time to begin to think out these changes, the potential consequences of these changes, and to begin to create a strategy to plan for change. Time is unstoppable, and time will bring change. If we are to have a future we must deal with it. Action must follow thinking.
WNY and Buffalo can become a place of leadership on these issues. Indeed initiatives such as County Executive Joel Giambra’s regionalism approach to governance, environment and planning, and such business initiatives as Buffalo Common Council President James Pitt’s creation of the Green Gold Development Corporation and the Office of Sustainability for the City are positive steps. Giambra, a republican, and Pitts, a democrat, share a proactive vision for the future.
Now a group of individuals representing UB, The City of Buffalo, Erie County, and individual citizens
and citizen groups have banded together to create a wonderful fall conference scheduled for the Buffalo Convention Center called “Learning Sustainability, A Community Forum”. Many guests of global significance including Jane Goodall, Paul Hawken, David Suzuki, and Sylvia Earle, have agreed to participate in this event. Running concurrently at the Convention Center with this conference is “Buffalo’s “Green Gold Business Exposition/2001”, which will showcase cutting-edge environmental technology firms, industry leaders putting sustainability to practice and non-profit organizations addressing societal issues that relate to a sustainable quality of life.
This whole event will be held in conjunction with the centennial of the Pan American Exposition and will feature the future of social thought and economic development much like the Pan American featured and promoted the future a century ago. Several subsequent activities are scheduled or being developed for business, schools, and the community that will insure that this conversation on sustainability continues long after this initial conference concludes.
It is hoped that this will be the beginning of a wide discussion on the issues surrounding sustainability. This event, which will be open to all, will put Buffalo on the path to globally recognized leadership, much like those planners of the Pan American Exposition dreamed of in 1901.
-Jay Burney, Lives in Buffalo, and is the director of the WNY Environmental Roundtable and Learning Sustainability .
-Don’t forget Twelve Eight Path Band after Dr. Suzuki’s talk on Thursday evening. Music Starts Approximately 930pm! No Admission Charge, Event is Free and Open to the Public-
-Learning Sustainability Feature Speakers Roundup-
Jane Goodall- globally recognized conservationist and advocate for the restoration of the worlds ecosystems, particularly forests. Dr. Goodalls Roots and Shoots program advocates the planting and adoption of urban trees by children.
David Suzuki-We known science broadcaster and writer, host of “The Nature of Things” David Suzuki has helped many of us to understand the complexities and interrelatedness of ecosystems, organisms, and society.
Sylvia Earle- pioneering oceans explorer, director of the National Geographic Society’s office of Deep Ocean Expeditions, and former director of NOAH, Dr. Earle’s 1996 Book “Sea Change” alerted the world community to the fact that the conditions and overall health of our oceans are changing radically, due in large part to human impact. Dr. Earle has been called by conference organizers “The Rachel Carson of the 21st century”
Paul Hawken
Paul Hawken is an environmentalist that has pioneered new approaches to thinking about business and its relationship to environment and society. Mr. Hawken challenges business to recognize that industrial age models of profit at all costs must be reevaluated in order to build sustainable futures. He says business has a responsibility to make society better, and that while the bottom line is still the answer, it must be understood that the bottom line is the environment.
Dianne Dillon Ridgley
For president of Zero Population Growth and representative to the United Nations for the YWCA, Ms. Dillon has led a distinguished career as a noted international speaker on Sustainable Development, Population, Gender, Environmental Justice and Human Rights issues.
-Don’t forget Twelve Eight Path Band after Dr. Suzuki’s talk on Thursday evening. Music Starts Approximately 930pm! No Admission Charge, Event is Free and Open to the Public-
Opinion
Business is the Solution? -Paul Hawken and The Culture of Natural Capitalism
-By Jay Burney
The impact of business and business practices on society and culture is one of the principal explorations of “natural capitalism”, an evolving approach to the conduct and future of business.
How wealth is created, where it goes, and what and how products and services are manufactured and marketed all have substantial consequences on human culture. For the most part, global business practices that are often characterized as unsustainable have challenged cultures and societies and their opportunities to be sustainable and to provide for a better future.
This goes both to politics that support business and to the bottom line of business, which is most often about creating profit at all costs.
Paul Hawken, along with Amory and Hunter Lovins, are the authors of “Natural Capitalism, The Next Industrial Revolution” published in 1999. Paul Hawken and representatives of the Rocky Mountain Institute founded by the Lovins, will be in Buffalo for “Learning Sustainability- Achieving Environmental, Social, and Economic Well -Being” to be held October 10-13 at the Buffalo Convention Center. Mr. Hawken will lecture at a luncheon banquet on Friday the 12th as a part of the Green Gold Business Expostion/2001, which is part of the Learning Sustainability Forum. The Rocky Mountain Institute will conduct two workshops. The Friday afternoon the workshop at the convention Center will focus on “Implementing Practices for Natural Capitalism”. On Saturday, at St Paul’s Church in downtown Buffalo, and the Rocky Mountain Institute will host a “Building Sustainable Communities” workshop. It is open to the public and you are encouraged to join in.
Mr. Hawken suggests that we must reexamine the concept of profit at all cost he says that while the bottom line is still a critical factor, it is essential to recognize that the bottom line is environment. He also says that tomorrow’s most successful businesses will draw profit from their own environmental responsibility.
This is an important lesson when one examines the role of business in society. How does business contribute to the well being of society? Given today’s world conditions, it seems to be a good time for us all to take stock of corporate contributions.
Some would argue that we live in an uncontrolled global consumer society that promotes rampant misuse of resources in the guise of creating wealth for the few at the expense of the many.
The challenge today is to encourage business to recognize their changing role in the context of what is beneficial to overall global society. This reflects on corporate policy, culture, product and service models, manufacture, and marketing of products and services.
“Learning Sustainability Achieving Environmental, Social, and Economic Well-Being” will address some of these issues. The organizers have issued a community wide invitation to solicit your participation. For more information and registration info, go to www.sustain.buffalo.edu
Links
David Suzuki to conduct Book Signing
David Suzuki, acclaimed author and broadcaster
Next Steps
-Now More Than Ever-
This is a stressful time to be a resident of planet earth. But it is precisely because of these stresses that we must focus now, more than ever on solving environmental, social, and economic problems. Focusing on sustainability now, organizing and planning initiatives now, promoting leadership now, will help to characterize the future well being of global, regional and local culture. This is our challenge. So if someone asks you, “why sustainability, why now”, you could say “Now more than ever.”
The Learning Sustainability Forum in Buffalo in October is designed to accomplish several objectives. These include promotion of leadership, and the launching of a long range “discussion” linked to sustainability issues. There are many potential outcomes of this initial event, and the following three initiatives have been discussed and are undergoing serious planning. A follow up meeting scheduled for November 3, 2001 in Buffalo, will focus on the future of the discussion with these particular three programs, and probably a number of others. You will here more about these potential “outcomes” at the forum, and in the coming weeks and months.
The Learning Sustainability Campaign
Promoting Environmental, Social, and Economic Well Being
The fundamental Campaign strategy is to promote sustainable issues and initiatives as widely as possible. The Learning Sustainability Campaign has two primary components:
-The first component is essentially a public relations campaign that creates and distributes media products such as PSA’s and other programs for radio and television, print and electronic materials such as educational advertising and promotion, media networking including electronic list serves, and the Learning Sustainability Newsletter. In addition the Campaign will promote environmental media literacy, including providing media advocacy learning opportunities for organizations and groups.
-The second component offers the Learning Sustainability Campaign and its team as a resource for other communities, worldwide, to develop sustainability programs and plans.
The Sustainability Council
The concept is to create broadly focused Sustainability Council. This would be a regional, Binational organization, focused on both keeping the learning sustainability discussion active, and creating strategic and linked sustainability plans. These planning initiatives would help the multi-dimensional regional community (however that is defined) work toward blueprints for environmental restoration; social understanding, awareness, and justice; and economic development. The concept is to create an overall umbrella for a wide variety of activities, initiatives, projects, with an ultimate focus on linked strategic planning. For instance a Green Business Council could link to an overall Sustainability Council strategy as could as well as social justice and environmental components. MORE TO COME!
The Buffalo Declaration
This will be an important document dedicated to identifying baseline strategies for the protection of Great Lakes waters. Strategies would include political, environmental, and economic contexts, with the ultimate outcome being a basin-wide consensus and approach to these issues.
For more information: www.sustain.buffalo.edu
Or: lscampaign@aol.com
The Learning Sustainability Newsletter is produced in Cooperation with the Learning Sustainability Campaign.
Editor Jay Burney
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